In view of the increase of industrial waste, shortage of waste processing facilities, and environmental protection, the recycling and reusing of such wastes as resin fragments has been required in societies.
FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a conventional dry cleaning apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2001-276743. Waste to be processed is a mixture of recovered objects to be reused (glass cullet) and adhesive objects (labels) having specific gravities smaller than those of the recovered objects. The conventional dry cleaning apparatus is a vertical air-blow type dry cleaning apparatus for separating the waste into recovered objects and adhesive objects with using a difference in the specific gravities and the difference in the resistance to air flow between the two objects.
A first funnel member 2 is provided at the upper part of a casing 1 having substantially a cylindrical shape. A second funnel member 3 is provided at the lower part of the casing 1. A chute 4 is provided between the funnel members 2 and 3. The chute 4 includes a center portion projecting upwardly and an outer edge located under the center portion. The chute 4 has a slant surface extending from the center portion to the outer edge.
The casing 1 has a flow inlet 5 provided at the lower thereof for introducing air under a joint between the second funnel member 3 and the casing 1 having the substantially cylindrical shape. A flow output 6 is provided under the joint between the first funnel member 2 and the casing 1 for discharging the light adhesive objects together with air.
A first gap 7 is provided between the casing 1 and the outer edge of the second funnel member 3. A second gap 8 is provided between the casing 1 and the outer edge of the chute 4. The first gap 7 is smaller than the second gap 8. The chute 4 is supported above the second funnel member 3 by support posts 3A.
The air introduced from the flow inlet 5 flows along the second funnel member 3 and passes upwardly through the first gap 7. The air rises and whirls along the first funnel member 2, and then, is discharged from the flow outlet 6.
An outlet opening 9 of the first funnel member 2 is located under the flow outlet 6. The heavy recovered objects cannot be raised by the flowing air, and accordingly, are hardly discharged from the flow outlet 6. On the other hand, the light adhesive objects are raised by the flowing air and discharged from the flow outlet 6.
The convention cleaning apparatus separates the waste (mixture) into the recovered objects and the adhesive objects with using the air introduced from the flow inlet. However, this apparatus does not remove the adhesive objects adhered to the recovered objects, for example, on the slant surface of the chute 4.
In the case that recovered objects passes through the first gap 7, this apparatus cannot recover the objects, thus allowing the objects to be accumulated on the bottom of the casing 1.
The second gap 8 is larger than the first gap 7. Consequently, if the light adhesive objects move along the slant surface of the chute 4 and move out of the air flowing from the flow inlet 5 to the flow outlet 6, the light members may be mixed with the recovered objects in the second funnel member 3 for recovering only the recovered objects. In order to solve this problem, the heights of the posts 3A supporting the chute 4 to control the air flowing from the first gap 7 to the second gap 8, requiring complicated design of the convention dry cleaning apparatus.